The subscriber in a communication network needs to be informed about the charge for a telecommunication service he has requested.
The invention starts with the charge information on the subscriber side that is usual today. It is described for example in regard to the functions to be provided by the communication network in the chapter "II.3.4 Trunk exchange system" of the book "Basic switching technique" by G. Siegmund, published by R. v. Decker, G. Schenk, Heidelberg 1991 on pages 92 to 94. The functions to be provided by a terminal for that purpose are described in chapter 7.1.0.0 "Telephone devices" of the book "Handbook of telecommunications" by Franz Arnold, published on pages 12 and 13 by the German Commercial Service (Deutscher Wirtschaftsdienst).
As described by Franz Arnold, the subscriber terminal exchange associated with the subscriber sends metering pulses to the terminal whose subscriber is charged for the connection, to inform the subscriber about the charge during the existence of a connection. These metering pulses are transmitted in the user information channel, and the number of transmitted metering pulses is a measure of the charge for the connection. They are detected by the subscriber's terminal, then they are counted and the accumulated sum is shown to the subscriber as charge information. As described by G. Siegmund, the metering pulses themselves are generated by a meter pulse sender in the subscriber terminal exchange, which is controlled by a translator located in the regional junction center. This translator determines the route of a connection, and the charge area assigned to this route. The meter pulse sender is adjusted for the charge area it has determined.
This type of subscriber charge information has the disadvantage that it requires specially equipped terminals.
In addition, a method of establishing a connection is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,502, which uses charge tariffs for the selection of connection paths.
This method of establishing a connection is used to establish a connection between two terminals of mobile subscribers in a network interconnection comprising a number of virtual private service-integrating networks and public networks. With this method, the called subscriber is located by a service by means of a visitor- or a home-data bank. If several connection paths are possible, the selection of one of the connection paths can be made by using the charge tariffs of the connection paths, among others, as a decision criterion.
However, with this method of establishing a connection, the subscriber is not informed about the charge for a call.